YOU'VE got to give credit to the people naming York's pubs. Recently, Bar Talk visited The Micklegate, found on Micklegate. And this week, The Gillygate opened... on Gillygate.

Imagine how much easier it will be to find your way to the pub if this trend continues. "We'll meet at the Merchantgate, have one in the Colliergate, then one in the Bootham, one in the Other Bootham and one in the Other, Other Bootham..."

Perhaps not.

Anyway, the Gillygate uses less ink than the name of the pub it once was, the Waggon and Horses. It opened on Thursday as the latest Exhibition Group pub.

Rachael Paylor and husband Ian are in charge. They will divide their time between the new pub and Thomas's, which they have run for five weeks. Ian will be more often behind the Gillygate bar, ably helped by live-in deputy Kathy Kelly.

Before the Paylors joined the Exhibition Group, they had worked for Tom Cobleigh as relief managers. They also ran the Flying Legends on Clifton Moor, York.

Downstairs, the Gillygate has undergone a major facelift, although the layout is unchanged. Rachael said it has still got three smaller rooms, with a sports room boasting a plasma TV. And the beer garden is being redone.

Five upstairs rooms are next to be refurbished for the B&B market.

"It's a very warm pub. It's got a lovely atmosphere about it," Rachael said. "We've got a lot of friendly staff."

They have installed a new coffee machine to entice in shoppers, and plan to serve afternoon tea and scones too.

"We are hoping to appeal to young and old," she said.

Food will be served all day, with an offer for two meals for £6.99. On the bar you'll find the legendary Timothy Taylor's Landlord, as well as cask Tetley's, lagers and two sorts of Guinness.

A quiz night and live music are planned for the future. You know where you are in The Gillygate.

BRACE yourself, ale lovers, for Search For The Stone II. No it's not another cinematic sequel but the follow-up to last year's beer and boots competition.

Regular readers will remember how Harrogate's Mark Reid, author of the Inn Way guidebooks, hid stone books on the routes of his walks in the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and the Lake District.

Only the Dales book was found.

So the little tinker has done it again. He has had another Yorkshire Dales book carved from Lakeland slate and hidden it on a public footpath somewhere the Inn Way walk.

And he has moved the two unfound stone books "to make them a bit more visible".

Whoever finds them wins a case of Black Sheep beer every month for a year, and Brasher walking boots, gaiters and trekking poles.

More details at www.innway.co.uk

THE Blue Minelle caf might be famed for its tarts but it hopes to attract an altogether more refined crowd if it is given a new bar licence.

Staff at the Fossgate eatery hope to soon be serving those well-known naughty pastries later into the evening with something a little stronger than coffee.

The little sister of the nearby Blue Bicycle restaurant is applying for a full alcohol licence so it can serve wines and beers with its Mediterranean-influenced cuisine.

Norma Hall, who is running down the shop's stock of gifts in preparation, says diners often want something other than a heavy caffeine kick with their food, whether it's sweet or savoury.

"What we're aiming for is an upmarket wine bar, somewhere that does not leave your ears bleeding with the music. We hope to expand the food and what we serve is extremely high quality," she adds.

As for those tarts, Norma says the classy caf bar won't be a "late night creche" for scantily clad youths grasping cheap bottles of fizzy alcoholic pop.

But with three "blue" evening attractions in this corner of York (the Blue Bell is almost opposite), Bar Talk wonders what's becoming of the area?

RUMOURS leapt to Bar Talk's attention this week that the much-missed Frog Hall might be about to be given a new lease of life.

Whispers suggested mammoth pub chain JD Wetherspoon was interested in taking on the boozer as part of its continuing UK expansion programme.

But sadly the Layerthorpe community pub, whose closure was valiantly fought by dozens of campaigners, looks likely to remain as it is for the foreseeable future. Wetherspoons media guru Eddie Gershon tells us that such talk is untrue, and the group has no plans at present to add to its two York premises.

Meanwhile, the future of the site, which includes the former gas works and looked set to be turned into a McDonald's drive-through, hangs in the balance after a buyer missed a completion deadline. Yet PR woman Kelly Smith, speaking for owner Enterprise Inns, says the deal is "still live".

The pub group can't say if the building will be demolished or not, she adds, but bosses are keen to see the semi-derelict building put back into use after almost 18-months standing empty. That's a lot of supping time for deserted drinkers. Why shut it down so long ago if it was just going to stand empty?

Updated: 09:04 Saturday, April 19, 2003